Greta was small, shabby and mismatched. Her dark hair fell in no particular style, her fingernails were chewed and jagged.

Though to some eyes these traits might add up to a disheveled, uncared-for appearance, somehow Greta wore them intentionally, like Pollack's perfect spatters or Basquiat's emotive scribbles.

Greta was one of seven 5th graders participating in my 4-H Afterschool program. She usually worked by herself, slightly removed but close enough to the group to chime in if she needed to. As in, "Uh-uh. Her name was Mrs. Kole," when the other kids referred to the new substitute as Mrs. King.

Greta was a serious and inventive artist. When we were folding origami cranes she insisted on gluing hers to a branch; when we needle-felted wool stars she wanted to make a heart.

She often asked to take her work home. The other kids were happy enough with our routine of work-for-an-hour, forget-for-a-week, but Greta wanted to finish her stuff. In the event that she did finish, she would ask for materials to take home so she could make another.

In return for supplies I became privy to the stories of how she taught her brother this, gave her mother that. With these stories came the teacherly satisfaction that what we were doing within certain walls was moving to the world beyond them.

Yay for me, yay for 4-H, yay for bright, bossy Greta!

The story could stop there, and the most important part--the part about transcending those walls--does. But the next piece of it sticks with me too, and somehow makes the loaned sewing needle and the extra origami paper mean more.

At some point during those weeks I found out that Greta's current home was the shelter in town. She told me this without missing a beat, without hushing her voice, and without lowering her eyes. She wore this information with the same matter-of-fact intention she displayed when she wore one blue and one green sock.

Inspired by Greta's enthusiasm and grace, I've since started a simple 4-H crafts program at the same shelter where she and her family lived. Besides seeing actual pieces of Greta--her drawings on the walls, her family's story on the Web page--I see her focus, grace, and skill in the women and children who sit in a circle around me each week.

(Name and several details changed to protect "Greta's" identity.)

by Arianne Fosdick, UNH Cooperative Extension Volunteer Management Program Assistant